Ensuring Equity in Health Care – An Analysis of Urban Odisha

Abstract

The whole health care system in urban Odisha operates as a dual care system with both the public and the private care services existing side by side. The over flooding of patients in the public health care system due to demand far exceeding the available supply forces them to seek private services. The unregulated private sector in most cases acts as sources of exploiting the patients financially. The matter of concern is the expanding inequity in the accessibility due to the unregulated private sector co-existing with shrinking and overburdened public sector which is further aggravating these inequities. Healthcare facilities are skewed towards the urban centres, thus affecting the accessibility of the rural and remote areas of the state particularly for tertiary healthcare. An analysis is made here for studying the extent of a patient centred health services in Odisha. To achieve this purpose, we make an attempt to measure patient perceptions of quality in health care in urban Odisha.